


Birthday Boys

by odd_izzy



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Birthday, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-27
Updated: 2018-04-25
Packaged: 2019-04-13 19:52:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,941
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14119581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/odd_izzy/pseuds/odd_izzy
Summary: 4 very short stories about 4 18th birthdays, in some not so good times. Things can only get better.





	1. Dick

**Author's Note:**

> It's my 18th birthday tomorrow as of posting this first chapter. These are only (very) short, but I promised myself that I would post something else on this site before I turned 18, so here it is. I'm not in the best place right now myself, but things can only get better.

**Dick**

There was another round of whooping from somewhere across the room as Wally did another round of shots at superspeed, with Kori and Donna cheering him on from on top of the bar. His friends had organised this surprise party for him to celebrate his 18th birthday, but Dick wasn’t in much of a partying mood. He’d only been living in New York with the Titans for a few months now, and it was going great, but he couldn’t help but think back to his last birthday, and the near decade of birthdays before that, when it had been him, Bruce and Alfred at the Manor. Alfred would always bake a cake specially, and write his name on the top in icing, and they would sing ‘happy birthday’ to him, just the two of them. After he became a teenager, he would often be out with friends or Barbara earlier in the day, but the evening meal would always be whatever Dick’s favourite was at the time followed by cake and singing. He'd had a card in the mail, but Bruce hadn't even called. 

It was hard not to feel homesick. 

“Dick?” Roy came up to where he was sitting, wearing nothing but his quiver and what looked like one of Kori’s skirts. “What are you doing sat over here by yourself? Come on, it’s your special day. Let’s dance!”

Dick smiled and got up, following Roy to the dance floor, where he was immediately surrounded by his friends. The music was good, his friends were great, and the dancing was terrible. Things could be worse. 


	2. Jason

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Today is my actual birthday (if you're reading this on the 28th) so this is a little present to myself - two chapters in two days. Tim and Damian will most likely be uploaded tomorrow and the day after, but if people want more Batkids on their 18th birthdays I could make a whole week of it...

**Jason**

Jason sat in his safehouse in the Bowery by himself. He’d only gone outside once today, and that was a quick trip to the nearest corner shop to buy himself the cupcake he was currently scarfing down. He had never really celebrated his birthday much as a kid, since there wasn’t any money for presents before his Mom died and there wasn’t any money at all afterwards. But his first birthday after moving into the Manor, Alfred had baked him a big cake with his name on it, and told him to blow out the candles and make a wish. So newly 13 year old Jason had taken a deep breath, blown as hard as he could, and wished that he could stay at the Manor forever. And didn’t that turn out well.

Jason’s reminiscing was cut short by the buzzing of his phone, shortly followed by a knock at his window. He got up quickly, drawing his gun and moving slowly towards the window, and grabbed his phone on the way. It was lit up with a text alert, so Jason kept one eye on his phone and one eye on the window as he opened the message.

3:08 pm [I believe your gift from me has just arrived. I hope you find good use for them –T]

Jason relaxed, holstered his gun, and opened the window to find a box on his fire escape, and as expected, no sign of the delivery guy. Bringing the box inside, Jason put it down and opened it cautiously (this was still Talia, after all). Inside were several carefully packaged small vials, each labelled the same way – ‘for sweet dreams’. Jason would usually be sceptical of such items, but after all of his experiences with Talia, this seemed perfectly plausible. He sent her a quick text to let her know the package had arrived, and to express his thanks. He hadn’t been expecting anyone to remember his birthday at all this year.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jason's gift from Talia in this chapter is loosely inspired by chibi_nightowl's short story 'The Dreamweaver', so shout-out to her for being great!


	3. Tim

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a little late because I was super tired yesterday and never got around to posting it. But it's also the longest so far, because I love the TimTam dynamic.

**Tim**

Tim sighed, taking his glasses off and rubbing at his eyes. He felt like he was going round in circles, trying to organise a division of resources between two departments who had such a fierce rivalry that half of what each was requesting were things that they knew the other wanted, just so they were inconvenienced. It was making what should have been a simple process drag on for several weeks now, with no end in sight. They would eventually end up with what they needed, and both department heads would have wasted a lot of their own time as well as Tim’s. It was the sort of thing that drove him crazy.

Then, as if the universe could sense that he needed a break, there came a knock at the door.

 “Hey Tim!” said his assistant, Tam, in an overly cheery voice that usually indicated he was in trouble for something. “Guess what you didn’t tell me today was!”

Tim stared at her blankly, running through dates of important meetings, project presentations and deadlines, and coming up with nothing. Today was just another day in the stressful life of 17 year old acting CEO of Wayne Enterprises, Timothy Drake-Wayne.

Wait.

Tim leaned over to his computer, jogged the mouse to kill the screen saver, and stared at the date in the corner. July 19th.

He looked up at Tam. “It’s July 19th,” he said. “That means…”

She was looking at him with astonishment, mouth hanging open, although that was quickly remedied. “That you forgot your own birthday? How could you forget about your own 18th birthday, Tim? You can vote now! You’ve been complaining about how stupid it was that you could control a Fortune 500 company and not be able to vote since Luthor ran for President, and I know that at least one of your trust funds gets unlocked for you today.”

Tim groaned. “I’ve been so busy; I haven’t been paying attention to the date at all. This does explain why there seemed to be so much more post that usual this morning, though.”

“You said you would use your trust fund money to buy me a car.”

“I have no memory of saying that.”

“You also didn’t remember that it’s your birthday today before a minute ago. Who’s to say you haven’t just forgotten that you promised me a Lamborghini?”

“Now it has to be a Lamborghini?”

Tam frowned as Tim faceplanted into his arms on the desk. He was so tired. It would be really easy to con him into buying her a car. But she knew that he would get her a company car if she asked , when he was less stressed and more aware of the world outside of whatever battle he was currently fighting via email.

Tim looked up as Tam left the room, only to quickly return with a red box tied with a ribbon. “You never asked how I knew it was your birthday,” she said smiling as he cautiously opened the box, pulling out a cupcake decorated to look like Red Robin’s uniform, and a note, which read {Happy Birthday Timmy! I wish I could be there in person, but I had to go to a place to do a thing! Love you lots, Dick}.

Tim smiled. His big brother remembered his birthday from the other side of the world on a League mission when he had forgotten it himself. Taking the first bite out of the cupcake, he returned to his email battle with renewed vigour.


	4. Damian

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long! It's been almost a month! A combination of illness, computer troubles and a total lack of inspiration for writing Damian have all been factors, so I'm very glad to finally get this out there. Hope you enjoy!

**Damian**

Damian smiled and nodded politely to the receptionist at the desk in the lobby as he walked straight from the doors of Wayne Enterprises’ head office, Wayne Tower, to the elevators. Today was the day. He had worked for this for years, graduating from high school before the age most people start, becoming the youngest ever graduate of Gotham University with his degree in business. And then getting a second degree, this one in economics, because he still had so long to wait before he could get here.

Damian stood in the elevator with every muscle tensed; barely noticing the inane music playing that normally drove him nuts. Today wasn’t like every other day. Today he would finally get what may have been his birthright, but that he had well and truly earned ever since the day he discovered that he would not automatically inherit his father’s company upon his eventual deathbed. This came to light during the period when his father was presumed dead, when Damian was little more than a child, and was informed that no, the controlling interest in a multi-national corporation was not going to be handed to a 10 year old. In fact, the idea was considered so absurd that others actually dared to laugh at him for making such an assumption, despite his status as his father’s only blood son.

Instead, Drake was given all the power that should have been Damian’s despite his own youth, and with support from Lucius Fox managed not to run the company into the ground. Damian no longer hated his adopted brother the way he did all those years ago, but he still resented the praise and attention levelled on Timothy Drake when Damian was **right there**. Drake on the cover of Forbes magazine, Drake in the TIME100 with a blurb written by Ted Kord. All the while Damian was forced to bide his time, get his education and watch as the press fawned over the world’s youngest ever CEO (even if he was only acting CEO for a matter of months). At least now Drake was running his own company, and couldn’t interfere with Damian and his goals.

The elevator reached the top floor. Damian rolled his head from side to side, working out the crick in his neck. He straightened his tie and vest and pulled his shirt sleeves out from under the cuffs of his black blazer, cufflinks gleaming. The doors slid open and Damian strode out with all the earned confidence of someone who knew they were getting exactly what they deserved. The door to his future, at the end of an average-looking hallway, seemed to glow as the light from the morning sun shone through the frosted glass panel. Damian paused outside the room for a moment. He couldn’t afford to make this any less than the triumphant moment it deserved to be.

He heard the voice inside the room stop, having finished whatever inane drivel it had been spewing. Then, a more easily recognised voice: that of Lucius Fox, his father’s mentor in the business world, saying “Thank you for your report, Sadiq. Anything further or are we done for today?”

There were shuffling sounds, as if the supposed best and brightest of WE believed this meeting to be done and were gathering their things to leave. Then a voice interrupted the shuffling with the line Damian had been waiting for.

“Actually, ladies and gentlemen, I need to introduce you to a new member of staff. I publicly announced my retirement a few months ago, and I know I said I was leaving at the end of the year, but while I will be staying with the company until then, today is my last day as CEO.” Bruce paused to give them a moment to close their mouths and to take in the information.

Damian checked his hair one last time, summoned every ounce of his mother’s spirit, and opened the door. His father looked at him and smiled, and there was a moment where it seemed like just the two of them in the room, Damian at the foot of the table and Bruce smiling with pride and what may have been tears in his eyes. Then the rest of the room turned, practically in unison, to see what Bruce was looking at, and Damian had all eyes on him.

“Hello,” he said. “I’m Damian Wayne. As of today, I am the CEO of Wayne Enterprises. Let’s get started.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! I really hope you've enjoyed this story, even though it's very short and not super happy. I decided to give Damian a happier 18th birthday than maybe the others' seemed to be, but feel free to analyse this like an English teacher and discuss whether you think Damian is really happy. I welcome all comments!
> 
> If you've read this far, I'd like to start a challenge: the longest chapter of my other story, 'Do Cats Eat Bats?; is the heist, chapter 9, which contains a lot of references to a lot of different films and tv shows, as well as one reference to someone else's fic. Anyone who can comment on that chapter with a list of more than 3 correct reference identifications (and I want specific episodes for the TV shows) can challenge me to write a short story featuring any Batman characters in whatever scenario you like (although I will only write things appropriate for general audiences). Some references are actually namechecked, some are very subtle, but there are quite a lot of them and all of them will count. This challenge will keep going indefinitely until I've written 3 stories. Good luck!

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! I have another story that is much more lighthearted than this, so if you enjoy accidental animal transformations and brotherly bonding, check it out on my profile!


End file.
